Wikipedia:Naming conventions (aircraft)

This consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page .

The naming of articles on aircraft types should normally follow a standard format of [MANUFACTURER]-[DESIGNATION]-[NAME], for example

Manufacturer

This should be the main designer and manufacturer of the type. If the type has been produced by different companies or different company names then consensus should be reached on a case-by-case basis on which to use. For example, use

Boeing DC-3 or British Aerospace Spitfire

.

Designation

This can be either the manufacturer's designation or the military designation depending on which is more common. If an aircraft has multiple designations then use the most common or none if this would cause confusion. If the exact designation of a certified aircraft is unclear because official sources differ, the Type Certificate Data Sheet should take precedence. In cases where the TCDS official designation varies significantly from the name the aircraft is marketed under, then this should be explained in the article text. (i.e. Hughes 369 is marketed as the

Hughes 500, LC41-550FG is marketed as the Cessna 400

).

Name

This should be the official name either given by the manufacturer or the military. Do not use nicknames or foreign reporting names, (

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 Fishbed

) for example. If the type has multiple names then either use the most common or none if this would cause confusion.

Child articles

Articles that are split from, or are sub-articles, of the "parent article" should, as far as is practical, retain the manufacturer-designation-name as the first part of the title and the specific topic of the article after that. For instance the main article Bell UH-1 Iroquois has a sub article Bell UH-1 Iroquois variants. An exception to this would be List of Bell UH-1 Iroquois operators, which follows standard Wikipedia-wide nomenclature for list articles.

Exceptions

Any guideline can have exceptions as some aircraft are so well-known that it makes more sense to break the usual rules. In theory, the Anglo-French supersonic airliner should be the

Aerospatiale–BAC Concorde, but it is so well known as simply Concorde

that it is better to use the common name.

Redirect

Whatever format is agreed or used for an article, consideration should be given to create

redirects

from other variations of the name.

Renaming

These guidelines should be considered when proposing the renaming of an article or the name of the article is disputed. Consideration should be given to renaming current articles when needed but they should not be renamed en masse without agreement from other editors.